Josh Homme

Josh Homme

Joshua Michael Homme (born May 17, 1973 in Palm Springs, California) is an American Rock musician. He was a founding member of the desert rock band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only continuous member of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA), in which he sings and plays guitar. He co-founded and occasionally performs with Eagles of Death Metal as its drummer, and continues to produce and release a musical improv series with other musicians, mostly from the Palm Desert Scene, known as The Desert Sessions.

Early life

Homme was born to working-class parents in Palm Springs, California and grew up in the suburbs of Palm Desert. While attending parochial and public schools, Homme felt distaste for his teachers and was rebellious. Unlike the majority of his classmates, who came from wealthy families, Homme's parents worked as manager and housekeeper of several local hotels and motels, leaving him with little spending money and sometimes outcast among his peers. He often found himself in trouble for his expression of occult-oriented art and for being a "smart mouth" with his teachers. Although considered by some to be rather shy and reserved, Homme was frequently sent to detention for swearing, his lack of conformity to school standards, and for writing poetry. He dropped out of school at age 16 in 1989 to pursue a career in music, and has referred to it as "the best decision in my life"

Growing up listening to an eclectic mix of hard rock and early heavy metal, Homme learned guitar as a teenager, after being inspired by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. His earliest albums included that of artists Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and a number of underground releases by Pentagram and Black Flag. Homme has often cited Queen's epic A Night at the Opera as his favorite album of all time. His main musical influences are commonly attributed to Steppenwolf, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Black Flag, among others. In 2007, he and Queens of the Stone Age performed a tribute to Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne for a VH1 special.

Kyuss

Main article: Kyuss

At age 15, in 1988 , Homme formed a local stoner rock act in Palm Desert called Sons of Kyuss (quickly shortened to Kyuss) as their lead guitarist. The band became a cult phenomenon through the early nineties. Homme, who disliked the Los Angeles drug scene and has referred to it as the "stupid people scene," often preferred that the band drive for hours out to isolated locations in the desert and plug into generators to perform. While the band typically wrote many songs about empowerment, a common theme in stoner rock, Homme's lyrical writing was set in a darker tone, focusing on themes more common in doom metal. As a result, Homme was often portrayed in the press as the "Kurt Cobain of the desert rockers", which he has taken as a compliment.

During his career with Kyuss, Homme was often thought to have overshadowed the rest of the band with onstage antics that made him an Indie-media favorite. Often, he would throw his guitar into the audience after a show, or use it to trash the band's equipment. While in concert, he would frequently toy with his equipment to gain a more psychedelic tone, often playing his pawnshop Ovation Ultra GP through old Ampeg bass amplifiers and an array of pedals while tuning his guitar four semitones lower than normal, thus adding a heavier mood to the songs. When heckled or booed, he would frequently point out the heckler to the crowd and unleash a slew of profanity that included encouraging or challenging the heckler to a fight, something that has continued in his shows with QOTSA.

Queens of the Stone Age

Josh Homme on stage.

Main article: Queens of the Stone Age

Kyuss split up in 1995 and after considering attending University of Washington in Seattle, Homme went on tour with grunge act The Screaming Trees as their second guitarist. He and vocalist Mark Lanegan became close friends during their time touring, and Homme would later recruit Lanegan as an additional vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age. Disliking the band's constant arguing and lack of progression, Homme left the group after less than a year. He assembled a group more centered to his unique style and tastes in founding Gamma Ray which later became Queens of the Stone Age in 1997. QOTSA released their eponymous debut album in 1998. It became an immediate cult hit among both critics and former Kyuss fans.

Following their debut, the band released several singles and EPs. With the next album, Rated R, Homme sought a more conceptual approach. His lyrics centered around the media of the 1990s. The graphic nature of the album's songs attracted criticism from family-oriented groups, who objected to lyrics which discussed murder, sexuality and suicide. Despite this controversy, the All Music Guide heralded the album as the "re-birth of real guitar rock," putting Homme's band in the same category as Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut and Nirvana's Nevermind for their inspiration of a revival in hard rock.

Despite differences from the band's debut, Rated R became the band's first mainstream hit. The next release, 2002's Songs for the Deaf , however, would gain even more buzz from the music community and fans alike. In Deaf Homme continued his filtering of stoner metal and hard rock through the progressive rock aesthetic. The album centers around Homme's memories of an uncomfortable ride through the California desert, where he had performed in his days with Kyuss, and where there was little else to listen to but Spanish radio stations. Deaf was the first album with QOTSA in which Homme used more graphic language and toyed with multiple genres. Experimenting with the techniques of old favorites like hardcore act Black Flag, early grunge music, and the guitar-driven hard rock of Led Zeppelin, Homme crafted an album that was fast, rhythmic, and heavy.

Homme performing with QOTSA at the Wireless Festival, June 14, 2007

Homme-penned songs like "No One Knows" and "Go with the Flow" became instant classics on hard rock radio, while other works previously overlooked in his recordings with Kyuss, began to resurface in movies and television.

During this time, Homme allegedly had a falling out with bassist and friend Nick Oliveri. Following the release of Deaf , their relationship deteriorated until Homme fired Oliveri from the band in 2004.

In 2004, enjoying the fame that QOTSA had accumulated for the last few years, Homme began writing their next album, Lullabies to Paralyze. Based on a lyric from a Deaf song, the album was another concept piece, this time focusing on the occult and folklore common in childrens' storybooks. As Deaf had been symbolized by the image of a sperm entering an egg (depicted as a stylized "Q", a recurring moniker for the band), Lullabies was in many ways a sequel to the album, with many songs oriented to the folklore nature.

Homme's work again sparked criticisms from conservative groups, citing his abrasive use of sexual themes and graphic language in the album, with songs like "Little Sister" and "Skin on Skin" sometimes banned from radio stations that chose not to censor the bad language and were offended or received complaints on the sexual overtones of the songs. Many fans and critics however, argued that they were intrinsic to the plot of the album, and a large part of Homme's status as a sex symbol and rising legend among rock fans. Other songs, such as "Everybody Knows That You Are Insane" and "Burn the Witch" gained heavy rotation on MTV but were branded by some to be devil-worshipping music. Homme denied this, saying the songs were about insanity and betrayal and had no religious overtone unless "you infer that for yourself and make [the songs] what you want of it. The energy you put in will be the energy you get back, and that's what [it] is. (sic)"

Homme's latest work, QOTSA's Era Vulgaris was released on 2007-06-12 and received a four star review from Rolling Stone, something the band has been unable to do since the release of their eponymous album.

Side projects

Other acts with which Homme has collaborated include Mondo Generator, Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, Fatso Jetson, Mark Lanegan Band, Trent Reznor, Masters of Reality, Millionaire, Wellwater Conspiracy, U.N.K.L.E., Melissa Auf Der Maur, Paz Lenchantin, A Perfect Circle, Death from Above 1979, Earthlings?, Mastodon, Peaches, and Local H.

Homme was featured on Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen in the song "Stone Cold Crazy", on Blood Mountain by Mastodon, in the song "Colony of Birchmen", and on Impeach My Bush by Peaches in the song "Give 'Er".

Homme, along with friend and Kyuss/QOTSA contributor/producer Chris Goss performed as "The 5:15ers" at the inaugural ArthurBall (an offshoot of the ArthurFest festival) in Los Angeles on January 26, 2006.. The two were credited as "The Fiffiff Teeners" when they co-produced QOTSA's second album Rated R and their latest disc, Era Vulgaris.

Personal life

Homme and his wife, Spinnerette frontwoman Brody Dalle have a daughter named Camille Harley Homme, born on January 17, 2006. They live in Palm Springs.

Legal controversy

I learned nothing through anger management.

Josh Homme, June 2007

In 2004, Homme was involved in a scuffle with Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia at a L.A. club. Homme taunted Dahlia, poured beer on his head and struck him with the empty bottle. Homme was ordered to remain at least 100 yards away from Dahlia and the club, was sentenced to 3 years probation with community service, and was forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days. On The Dwarves' 2004 album, The Dwarves Must Die, Homme is mentioned in the song "Massacre". "This one goes out to Queens of the Trust-Fund, you slept on my floor, now I'm sleeping through your motherfuckin' records." This jab may have been behind the fight between Homme and Dahlia.

Name and pseudonyms

Homme's surname is of Norwegian origin, and is believed to come from the town Valle, Norway. Homme is known for never giving a straight answer as to how his last name is pronounced, but on several occasions (the BBC radio documentary "Time For Heroes: The Pixies" and on his secret "fan letter" on the final track of Mastodon's album Blood Mountain), he pronounced it as rhyming with "mommy", and this has been generally accepted as the proper Norwegian pronunciation amongst the fanbase. When Homme was interviewed in 2005 he again pronounced his surname as rhyming with "mommy". Despite this, his surname is most frequently heard pronounced in an American English interpretation of the spelling, rhyming with "home".

Pseudonyms

Homme adopted the pseudonym "Carlo Von Sexron" to credit his playing of bass, keyboard, piano, and drums on such albums as the self-titled debut Queens of the Stone Age, Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4, and Peace, Love, Death Metal from Eagles of Death Metal.

Homme is also known as "(King) Baby Duck" to Dalle and the members of Eagles of Death Metal. He is also referred to as "J.Ho." and "The Ginger Elvis"

Musical equipment

Homme's traditional setup has been Ovation Ultra GP guitars (3 different finishes, though the wine red one is rarely seen) played through a collection of Ampeg Vt-22 combos. The Ovation guitars were part of a limited production run, with less than 1000 made in 1984. Homme is evasive about his guitar equipment, choosing to either change the subject or even lie when asked about his setup in interviews. However it has been established that Homme owns three 1984 Ovation GPs (one sunburst, one black, and one red), and that he often downtunes his guitar to C standard.

For the "Blues for the Red Sun" tour with Kyuss in 1993, Homme used a cream colored Gibson Les Paul and a SG. This guitar was also used during Homme's tour with the Screaming Trees after Kyuss' break-up.

During the tours up until Lullabies to Paralyze, Homme used the following:

• Gibson Marauder Custom
• Maton MS503
• Maton MS524
• Epiphone Dot Black

For the Lullabies to Paralyze tour and record, he retired the GPs, and played almost exclusively semihollow guitars, including:

• Maton BB1200 "Betty Blue" in Black, Blue, Red Wine and a Tobacco with Scroll Tailpiece
• Motor Ave Bel Aire - Black with Silver scratchplate
• Maton MS526 with Bigsby
• Maton MS500 12 String Homme Signature (Josh Homme's signature guitar)
• Gibson Barney Kessel Signature
• Yamaha SA503 TVL in Black (Troy Van Leeuwen's signature guitar)
• Teisco '68 V-2

In addition to guitar Homme plays bass guitar, such as on "Burn the Witch" and "Long Slow Goodbye," as well as every track on QOTSA's debut album except for "You Would Know" and "Give the Mule What He Wants." Homme also plays the drums with Eagles of Death Metal, on The Desert Sessions as well as on some QOTSA tracks.

Discography

Eagles of Death Metal

• Peace, Love, Death Metal (2004)
• Death by Sexy (2006)

Kyuss

• Sons of Kyuss (1990)
• Wretch (1991)
• Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
• Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
• ...And the Circus Leaves Town (1995)
• Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss (2000)

Mondo Generator

• Cocaine Rodeo (2000)
• A Drug Problem That Never Existed (2003)

Queens of the Stone Age

• Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age (1997)
• The Split CD (1998)
• Queens of the Stone Age (1998)
• Rated R (2000)
• Songs for the Deaf (2002)
• Stone Age Complications (2004)
• Lullabies to Paralyze (2005)
• Over the Years and Through the Woods (2005)
• Era Vulgaris (2007)

External links

• Queens of the Stone Age official site
• Eagles of Death Metal official site
• Desert Sessions official site

Interviews

• 2007 Josh Homme Video Interview with VBS.TV

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